Spurs enter annual Rodeo Trip in fragile condition

Far from a burden, the Spurs’ annual Rodeo Road Trip is often a high point of their regular season, an opportunity to get away from the distractions of home and tighten up their process with the playoffs looming on the horizon.

Eleven times have the Spurs ventured away for their extended February voyage, and 11 times have they returned with a winning record. At 70.5, they boast the best winning percentage in North American pro sports since Tim Duncan joined the team in 1997. They’ve been even better on the rodeo trip, winning 71.4 percent of their games (65-26).

With only four of this year’s nine opponents boasting a .500 record or better, the Spurs would seem to have an outstanding chance to continue their success.

But not since 2010, when they dropped 6 of their preceding 9 games, have the Spurs entered their trip in such a fragile state. Indeed, with guards Danny Green (hand) and Manu Ginobili (hamstring) and small forward Kawhi Leonard (hand) all sidelined for varying stretches, the Spurs are facing a rodeo trip unlike any other.

“You’d like to be at full strength for (the rodeo trip) because it has been important for us getting momentum for the season,” Spurs coach Gregg Popovich told USA Today in the days after Ginobili’s injury. “So I’m disappointed for them.”

More than a week later, that disappointment had been replaced with typical Popovich resolve.

“We’ve still got to go play all the games,” he said before Saturday’s home victory over Sacramento. “When the game is over nobody cares. Nobody says, ‘Well, who was out for that team.’ You either won or you lost and you got better or you didn’t. So it’s all the same stuff. We want to concentrate on all the same things offensively and defensively, the things we want to get better at, and just go.”

The Spurs will at least be able to begin working center Tiago Splitter back into the rotation after his return against the Kings. He’s expected to be joined at some point this week by Green. There’s also the possibility that Leonard, finishing up the second of his three-to-four week timeline, could return for the West Coast leg of the trip.

“They’re trickling in,” Duncan said. “It’s great to have bodies back out there, great to start getting everyone healthy. Now it’s about getting their rhythm back, their wind back and get into game shape.”

The trip could serve the same function for the Spurs as a whole. Only instead of polishing their form, they’re seeking to regain it after losing 5 of the past 8 games to fall three games behind Oklahoma City in the Western Conference standings.

“Everything seems like a different tone right now,” Duncan said, “but it’s nothing we can sit around and complain about. What is there to be said? Everyone goes through injuries, we’re just going through a big rash of them right now.”